Miami Marlins Are Now the Surprise Team of the National League
By Jason Burke
Yesterday I wrote a piece saying that with some luck, the Colorado Rockies could still become the underdog story that everyone was predicting this winter, even with all of their injuries this spring. Yet, if the Rockies run of crummy luck continues, look out for the Miami Marlins to take over that under-the-radar mantle.
Even before injuries seemingly wiped out the Rockies, the Miami Marlins had made some shrewd moves with an obvious plan for 2017. That plan is to shorten games by adding veteran bullpen arms to help support closer A.J. Ramos and strikeout machine Kyle Barraclough. Brad Ziegler has ninth inning experience and Junichi Tazawa is at worst an average relief option and at best can eat up some important outs late in games. The combo of Barraclough, Ziegler and Ramos may not become a household threesome, but they should be able to seal up a number of late inning leads in 2017.
Of course, the big problem with the assertion that we’re rolling with is that the Washington Nationals and New York Mets are in the same division as well as the improving Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies. All told, the Marlins went 32-43 against the NL East last season and finished just three games below .500 overall. The division will be out of reach for Miami as they don’t quite stack up to New York or Washington, but with a slight improvement over their 2016 record, they could be right in the wild card conversation.
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
Obviously the tragic death of Jose Fernandez is going to be a big hurdle to conquer on the field, as he was a big part of their team and their starting rotation, but with the improvements in their bullpen, they may have enough to work with.
Of course, health is going to play a big factor here, but that goes for every team. Giancarlo Stanton is the force in the middle of the lineup that has to be there to provide a punch for the Marlins offense. If he misses an extended period of time, the fish could be sunk.
That said, each of the wild card favorites has their own sets of flaws. The Mets rotation fell apart last season, and are a big question mark at this point. The Giants are relying on a young relief corps outside of new addition Mark Melancon, George Kontos and Will Smith. They also don’t have a set left fielder and an injury to Hunter Pence could have a bigger impact in 2017 than it has in previous seasons. The Cardinals received a big blow with the loss of top prospect Alex Reyes for the entire season. While their own division may be improving, there are still plenty of wins to be had around the NL.
Also on their side is the fact that ten of their match-ups with the Phils are after the trade deadline, which Philly will almost certainly take advantage of after collecting relievers this offseason. The same reasoning goes for Atlanta, whom Miami faces eleven times in the final two months and should be seeing some of their younger talent in the big leagues by that point, which could go either way for the Marlins, really.
The Miami Marlins don’t have as clear of a path as a healthy Colorado team seemed to, but with some luck coming their way, they should definitely be around the playoff picture late in the season.